FailOver

I have two mirrored SQL 2005 servers which are administered by a third
server. I am not sure if this has been set up as a cluster as I am not fully
up to par with clustering.

Currently is 'SQLPrimary' goes down than all applications accessing data,
stop responding. Most applications were written in vb.net 2005 and the data
connection have the failover set.

Is there any 'procedures' that can be carried out to test if the servers are
set up correctly?

Currently if the primary server goes down then i have to manually failover
the secondary server to make all databases the primary on the main server.
This as you can imagine is a nightmare as our buisness should be online 24/7
and in order to reset the servers we have to take our amin business offline.

Our buisness was devoloped on Novell mirrored servers and I am trying to
ensure that now we are using SQL2005 servers that we capture recreate the
same secnrio we had with Novell.

can any one suggest any post's / white papers that i can study to ensure
that the servers are set correctly and that when the primary server fails
that any applications will contuine to function on the 'mirrored server'

thanks in advance

Peter,
this is a set of rather loaded questions - so my recommendation would be to
first determine whether you deal with clustering or mirroring (which is the
most likely suspect based on the info you provided) - since these are two
distinct - and for the most part independent - technologies (although there
are ways to combine them to some extent).
In case of the former, you have a single instance of SQL Server that has
ability to automatically fail-over across multiple physical Windows servers
(cluster nodes). The latter involves two separate instances of SQL Server
(plus a "witness" instance, which facilitates automatic failover) - and the
failover happens on the database level.
For more info, refer to
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc162491.aspx,
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...7(SQL.90).aspx, and
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc162479.aspx (if you intend to
combine these two technologies)

hth
Marcin

"Peter Newman" <> wrote in message
news:F464E2C9-AB00-496A-8E2B-...
>I have two mirrored SQL 2005 servers which are administered by a third
> server. I am not sure if this has been set up as a cluster as I am not
> fully
> up to par with clustering.
>
> Currently is 'SQLPrimary' goes down than all applications accessing data,
> stop responding. Most applications were written in vb.net 2005 and the
> data
> connection have the failover set.
>
> Is there any 'procedures' that can be carried out to test if the servers
> are
> set up correctly?
>
> Currently if the primary server goes down then i have to manually failover
> the secondary server to make all databases the primary on the main server.
> This as you can imagine is a nightmare as our buisness should be online
> 24/7
> and in order to reset the servers we have to take our amin business
> offline.
>
> Our buisness was devoloped on Novell mirrored servers and I am trying to
> ensure that now we are using SQL2005 servers that we capture recreate the
> same secnrio we had with Novell.
>
> can any one suggest any post's / white papers that i can study to ensure
> that the servers are set correctly and that when the primary server fails
> that any applications will contuine to function on the 'mirrored server'
>
> thanks in advance

It sounds like you aren't using Failover Clustering (or MSCS). This is the
goal you want to target for high availability for your SQL installation.
There is a ton of great information on the Microsoft site re: SQL
Clustering, including step-by-step guides. I believe Marcin gave you some
links as well...

Hope this helps,
--Ryan

--
Ryan Sokolowski
MVP - Clustering
MCT, MCITP x3, MCTS x7, MCSE x2, CCNA, CCDA, BCFP


"Marcin" <> wrote in message
news:uTch%...
> Peter,
> this is a set of rather loaded questions - so my recommendation would be
> to first determine whether you deal with clustering or mirroring (which is
> the most likely suspect based on the info you provided) - since these are
> two distinct - and for the most part independent - technologies (although
> there are ways to combine them to some extent).
> In case of the former, you have a single instance of SQL Server that has
> ability to automatically fail-over across multiple physical Windows
> servers (cluster nodes). The latter involves two separate instances of SQL
> Server (plus a "witness" instance, which facilitates automatic failover) -
> and the failover happens on the database level.
> For more info, refer to
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc162491.aspx,
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...7(SQL.90).aspx, and
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc162479.aspx (if you intend
> to combine these two technologies)
>
> hth
> Marcin
>
> "Peter Newman" <> wrote in message
> news:F464E2C9-AB00-496A-8E2B-...
>>I have two mirrored SQL 2005 servers which are administered by a third
>> server. I am not sure if this has been set up as a cluster as I am not
>> fully
>> up to par with clustering.
>>
>> Currently is 'SQLPrimary' goes down than all applications accessing data,
>> stop responding. Most applications were written in vb.net 2005 and the
>> data
>> connection have the failover set.
>>
>> Is there any 'procedures' that can be carried out to test if the servers
>> are
>> set up correctly?
>>
>> Currently if the primary server goes down then i have to manually
>> failover
>> the secondary server to make all databases the primary on the main
>> server.
>> This as you can imagine is a nightmare as our buisness should be online
>> 24/7
>> and in order to reset the servers we have to take our amin business
>> offline.
>>
>> Our buisness was devoloped on Novell mirrored servers and I am trying to
>> ensure that now we are using SQL2005 servers that we capture recreate the
>> same secnrio we had with Novell.
>>
>> can any one suggest any post's / white papers that i can study to ensure
>> that the servers are set correctly and that when the primary server fails
>> that any applications will contuine to function on the 'mirrored server'
>>
>> thanks in advance
>
>

Hi peter,

In the windows resource kit are also tools for clustering.

clusdiag.msi and clusterrecovery.exe

After installing the clusdiag you get a kind of cluster console with
reporting and diag tools. check it out.
But the guides are a must to read.



--
Greetings,

Robert Smit
Blog : http://fiberman.spaces.live.com/


"Ryan Sokolowski [MVP]" <> schreef in bericht
news9559312-216C-4CDB-BA0F-...
> It sounds like you aren't using Failover Clustering (or MSCS). This is
> the goal you want to target for high availability for your SQL
> installation. There is a ton of great information on the Microsoft site
> re: SQL Clustering, including step-by-step guides. I believe Marcin gave
> you some links as well...
>
> Hope this helps,
> --Ryan
>
> --
> Ryan Sokolowski
> MVP - Clustering
> MCT, MCITP x3, MCTS x7, MCSE x2, CCNA, CCDA, BCFP
>
>
> "Marcin" <> wrote in message
> news:uTch%...
>> Peter,
>> this is a set of rather loaded questions - so my recommendation would be
>> to first determine whether you deal with clustering or mirroring (which
>> is the most likely suspect based on the info you provided) - since these
>> are two distinct - and for the most part independent - technologies
>> (although there are ways to combine them to some extent).
>> In case of the former, you have a single instance of SQL Server that has
>> ability to automatically fail-over across multiple physical Windows
>> servers (cluster nodes). The latter involves two separate instances of
>> SQL Server (plus a "witness" instance, which facilitates automatic
>> failover) - and the failover happens on the database level.
>> For more info, refer to
>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc162491.aspx,
>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...7(SQL.90).aspx, and
>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc162479.aspx (if you intend
>> to combine these two technologies)
>>
>> hth
>> Marcin
>>
>> "Peter Newman" <> wrote in message
>> news:F464E2C9-AB00-496A-8E2B-...
>>>I have two mirrored SQL 2005 servers which are administered by a third
>>> server. I am not sure if this has been set up as a cluster as I am not
>>> fully
>>> up to par with clustering.
>>>
>>> Currently is 'SQLPrimary' goes down than all applications accessing
>>> data,
>>> stop responding. Most applications were written in vb.net 2005 and the
>>> data
>>> connection have the failover set.
>>>
>>> Is there any 'procedures' that can be carried out to test if the servers
>>> are
>>> set up correctly?
>>>
>>> Currently if the primary server goes down then i have to manually
>>> failover
>>> the secondary server to make all databases the primary on the main
>>> server.
>>> This as you can imagine is a nightmare as our buisness should be online
>>> 24/7
>>> and in order to reset the servers we have to take our amin business
>>> offline.
>>>
>>> Our buisness was devoloped on Novell mirrored servers and I am trying to
>>> ensure that now we are using SQL2005 servers that we capture recreate
>>> the
>>> same secnrio we had with Novell.
>>>
>>> can any one suggest any post's / white papers that i can study to ensure
>>> that the servers are set correctly and that when the primary server
>>> fails
>>> that any applications will contuine to function on the 'mirrored server'
>>>
>>> thanks in advance
>>
>>
>